Wallops Sounding Rockets, 1970

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Last month, thousands of people along the East Coast of the United States witnessed a total eclipse of the Sun by the Moon, an event that will not again be visible in North America in this century. At Wallops Island, Virginia, NASA scientists and technicians prepared and launched some 31 sounding rockets. Apache, Cajun, Iroquois, Tomahawk, small rockets ranging in size from 8 to 11 feet. Six Earth-orbiting satellites already in space made measurements from their vantage points. The studies of the solar event were designed to learn more about the effects of the Sun on the atmosphere and the region of space near Earth. Although the eclipse was at its peak at 1:38 p.m. on March 7th, the researchers began firing their rocket probes into the sky early in the morning, the day before the eclipse, and continued the launching through the following day. This allowed scientists to make comparisons before, during, and after the event. The eclipse provided a unique opportunity to study a sudden changes in the Sun’s radiation, which affects the Earth, changes that usually take place slowly as day turns to night. It will be several months before the mountains of data returned by the sounding rockets can be completely analyzed.